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i6^ THE NATION'S BLESSING 



IN 




TRI^L: 



A SER]\TON PKEACITKO IN THE 



Soutli JJresbyterian Church of Brooklyn, 



BY THE PASTOR 



REV. SAMUEL T. SPEAR, D. D 



NOVEMBER 27rH, 1802. 




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BROOKLYN : 

\VM A\' ROSE, BOOKSELLER AND PRINTER, 
ATLANTIC STREET. 



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THE NATION'S BLESSING IN T 




" O, COME, LET US SliCG UNTO THE LoRD : LET US MAKE A JOYFUL 
NOISE TO THE RoCK OF OUE SALVATION. LeT US COME BEFORE HIS 
PRESENCE WITH THANKSGIVING, AND MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO HIM 

WITH PSALMS." — Ps. 95 : : 1 — 2. 

In many respects the present is a dark and gloom v hour. 
As a people, we are in the midst of a terrible civil war, waged 
between those who but yesterday were members of the sauio po- 
litical family. In the number of combatants, in the territory 
over which it extends, in the skill and energy applied to its 
prosecution, in the loss of human life, in the causes which have 
produced it, and in the questions which hang upon it for their 
solution, this war is one of the most extraordinary military strug- 
gles, to be found in the history of man. At such a time, it would 
seem specially appropriate to come before God with fasting, hu- 
miliation, and prayer, that a gracious Providence might inter- 
pose and arrest the deadly contest: and yet the appointment by 
which we are convened, has recommended us to observe this day 
in thanksgiving and praise. If we have had trials .and sorrows, 
we have also had mercies. The common mercies of Providence 
we have all enjoyed. Trusting that we shall not forget to thank 
God for our daily comforts, our family blessings, our spiritual 
privileges, and heavenly hopes, I propose to inquire whether we 
may not as citizens, patriots, philanthropists, and Christians, see 
the good hand of the Lord in the very trials, which constitute 
our national affliction. I ask you to reflect, — 

First, upon the political and moral character of our cause. 
— The Government has drawn the sword to defend the life of the 
nation against the most atrocious rebellion the world ever saw. 
It is contending with anarchists and traitors. Its foes are trai- 
tors. Treason, on their part, and devotion to the Constitution 
and the Government erected under it, on ours, form the political 



2 THE nation's BLESSmG IN TEIAL. 

and moral contrasts of this great struggle. Traitors claim the 
right to dismember this nation at their pleasure, to secede from 
it, and erect another within its territorial limits. To repel and 
utterly blast this attempt to introduce the infamous doctrines of 
free love and divorce into the code of nations, is the righteous 
object for which the Government has taken up arms in its own 
defense. Tliere is hence a great political and moral principle 
at stake in this contest : and to crj peace, without any regard to 
this principle, is either a weakness of feeling, or the very next 
thing to treason itself. To surrender to an armed rebellion with- 
out an effort to crush it, would be a delinquency, alike condemn- 
ed by the laws of God and the reason of man. Peace on such 
terms is not desirable. I do not rejoice in the necessity of fight- 
ing: but the necessity being upon us, then I do bless God, that 
we can appeal to our own consciences, to the moral sense of man- 
kind, and to the Searcher of all hearts, in respect to the equity of 
the principle for which we contend. I believe in the righteous- 
ness of our cause, and also in the duty of doing our utmost to 
maintain it, as truly as I believe in the existence of God. Morally 
considered, we are not at liberty to be indifferent. We are bound 
before God as well as man, to be heartily loyal. Complicity with 
treason in such a struggle, is sin. 

Special force is given to these thoughts when we remember, 
that the Government of these United States is not despotic and 
oppressive, but built on the broad foundation of Human Rights. 
I know that the institution of slavery exists within its bosom, that 
it did so exist when the Union was formed, and that the Fathers 
who adopted the Constitution, did incidentally recognize it as a 
local institution of the States, providing for the rendition of fugi- 
tive slaves, and also granting an increased representation to the 
Slave States in the lower House of Congress on account of their 
slave population. I know also that the Southern people, especi- 
ally within the last thirty years, pleading what they call their 
constitutional rights on this subject, have become exceedingly 
extravagant and unreasonable in their claims upon the general 
Government, and that for the most part they have succeeded in 
these claims, largely controlling the national administration, and 
making or unmaking compromises very much at their own dis- 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. S 

cretion. Looking at a very large class of facts as they lie in our 
past history, one might almost suppose that this Government was 
created to be the guardian-angel of the extension and perpetuity 
of slavery. That it has been sadly perverted to these ends, is an 
unquestionable fact. 

And yet the Revolutionary Fathers had in view no such result, 
and meant no such thing. The slavery then existing tliey de- 
plored and condemned as a social, political, and moral evil, which, 
as they believed, would soon pass away, and leave liberty regu- 
lated by just and equal laws, as the blessing and inheritance*' of 
all the people. Such inen as Madison, John Jay, Dr. Franklin, 
Jefferson, John Adams, Washington, indeed most of the public 
men of the Eevolutionary age, very freely expressed their hatred 
of slavery, and advocated its early abolition. It is true, that 
yielding to the necessities of the hour, and desiring to secure the 
co-operation of all the States in the formation of the Union, they 
made compromises with this institution; and it is just as' true, 
that they honestly supposed, that in a few years the system would 
disappear by a process of natural decay. Hence Madison was 
not willing to have the word slave inserted in the Constitution, to 
disgrace that noble charter of human liberty with the chattel-doc- 
trine of property in man. The ordinance of 1787, prohibiting 
slavery in the North Western Territory, gave expression to the 
same idea and the same feeling. The spirit and purpose of our 
ancestors are among the most obvious facts of history. One great 
object of their labors, as they expressly said, was to "secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"— that liberty 
which recognizes as a fundamental idea, the fact "that all men 
are created equal," "endowed by their Creator with certain ina- 
lienable rights," among which "are life, liberty, and tlie pursuit 
of happiness." 

"The true and real life of a nation is the political idea^'' or 
ideas " upon which it is based. The ideas of our governmenr are 
Liberty 2in6. Z7n% :"— Liberty, as the gift of God to the indivi- 
dual man, subject in civil society to those legal directions and re- 
straints which are necessary to guard it against injury and abuse: 
—Unity, cementing and binding together all the people as one 
grand organism of social and political life. To realize these ideas 



4 THE nation's blessing IN TEIAL. 

in a practical form, the Constitution creates a nation by the 
self-directed action of the people, whose legally expressed will is 
the supreme law of the land. It provides the several depart- 
ments of Government, making them directly or indirectly de- 
pendent upon the people, thus giving free scope to the principle 
of popular representation. It invests the national will with the 
prerogatives of sovereignty, so limiting and qualifying what are 
called State Eights as to preserve the nationality of the whole 
people, considered as one, and but one political society existing 
under a common Government. Too much cannot be said in 
praise of this Constitution. It has fewer faults and more ex- 
cellences than any other instrument of the kind ever made by 
man. The Union under it has been prolific of countless benefits. 
The modern pretense of Southern politicians, that it has proved a 
system of aggression upon Southern rights, is utterly false. True, 
the Free States liave advanced much more rapidly than the Slave 
States, outgrowing them in popuhition and wealth: but this is 
the natural and necessary consequence of the difference between 
the two forms of society. All the New England States put togeth- 
er, are but a trifle larger than the single State of Virginia : the lat- 
ter was first in the time of settlement: her climate is most invit- 
ing, and lier natural elements of wealth, almost boundless : her 
position too is central: yet on account of her free institutions, 
New England has left Virginia very far in the rear, wedded to her 
system of slavery and its curses, proving by the laws of political 
economy, that while righteousness exalteth a nation, sin is always 
a reproach to any people. 

If then we must fight for our Constitution, I thank God that we 
are fighting on the side of liberty. This great nation infamously 
attacked by a most wanton treason, is striving not only to pre- 
serve its flag and its unity, but also to preserve the interests of 
liberty and justice. We are solving not only for ourselves, but 
also for the world, through all coming time, the problem of rep- 
resentative self government And whether we consider the prin- 
ciple of nationality, or the qualities of that nationality providen- 
tially committed to our keeping, we should be an ignoble peo- 
ple, unworthy of our inheritance, and unfaithful to duty, if we 
consented to the demands of this outrageous treason. Those who 



THE nation's BliESSma IN TRIAL. 5 

want peace upon any terms, and even pray God to give ns peace 
without reference to the principles involved in a just peace, or 
who would be willing to settle this controversy by a miserable 
compromise, that would simply transfer the difficulty to a future 
age, seem to me very deficient in their views of the crisis. I 
want no such peace, and no such compromise. I am satisfied with 
the Constitution as it is. It is the charter of liberty, and not of 
despotism: as the bond of Union, it is the central orb of our po- 
litical system; and I go for maintaining it at whatever cost. If 
this orb ot day sink into darkness, especially to give place to a 
most unrighteous despotism, I know not where, or when freedom 
can ever again safely build her altars. As it seems to me, the 
last hope of free institutions would perish from the world, if we 
fail in this struggle. I dread war, but I dread this more. 

I NAME, SECONDLY, OUR NATIONAL PRESERVATION AND SUCCESS 

THUS FAR IN THIS CONTEST. — We Still have a country and a Govern- 
ment. We are not yet dead. I very much doubt whether there 
is a monarchy in Europe, that could survive such a rebellion for 
three months. 

In the commencement, all the advantages were on the side 
of the insurgents. For years they had been preparing for this 
struggle, while the Northern people dreaming of no such crisis, 
were folding their arms in quiet security. Look carefully at the 
facts: — see the late President as imbecile as a little child, sur- 
rounded by a Cabinet, at least half of whom were fraitors and 
perjured viilians, plotting to destroy the very Government they 
were sworn to support : — look into the National Congress swarm- 
ing with traitors, belching out the angry fires of treason, without 
fear or restraint — : see how traitors had plundered the national 
treasury, scattered the navy to the four quarters of the globe, 
organized and even drilled many of their regiments, and distrib- 
uted the public arms in the Southern States : — witness the Gen- 
erals and under-officers of Government marching by scores into 
the ranks of treason: — see the almost total want of an army to 
be at once called into the public service: — see the wide extent 
of this foul conspiracy, reaching all through the Slave States, and 
patronized by the officers of State Government: — study well too 
the strange attitude of the Northern mind, just passing out of a 



6 THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 

severe political strife with all the heart-burnings incident to such 
a contest, the vanquished charging the fault upon the victors, a 
portion of the secular press actually shouting in triumph over 
the secession of States, not a few people sympathizing with this 
wickedness, patriots and honest men standing aghast, for the 
moment paralyzed, hoping and fearing, looking around for com- 
promises, not at all perceiving the tremendous magnitude of the 
scene before them, and having no great leader like a Webster, a 
Jackson, or a Clay, with grasp of thought and words of fire to 
move the public heart: — I say, look at these facts as they rolled 
along in rapid succession; aud really it would seem as if all were 
lost, and the knell of our nationality sounding. Tell me what 
Government on earth but this, under like disadvantages, could 
have escaped a total wreck. It is a marvel of Providence that 
we were saved at all. 

And how were we saved at this critical moment? IS^ot by 
the Peace Congress that met in Washington: not by the speeches 
of our representatives and senators in Congress: not by the me- 
•diation of the Border States: but by the wonderful providence 
of God, in some respects holding back the rebels and delaying 
their plans, and in others, so guiding our President in the early 
stages of his administration that when the moment came for him 
to sound the note of alarm, twenty millions of people, receiving 
into their bosoms one of those sudden and mighty regenerations 
of public feeling that does the work of centuries in a day, awoke 
from their lethargy, and sprang to the rescue, as if by the call 
of God. The people burning with a righteous indignation, felt 
the providential inspiration of the hour, and under God saved 
the country. God's providence so ordered events, that loyal and 
patriotic hearts were moved in season. He taught us at the mo- 
ment, as he has been since teaching us, that the work before us 
demands the very best qualities of the man, and the truest steel 
of the genuine patriot. Let God be praised that the country 
and the Constitution were not lost in tlie very outset of the 
struggle. We were just saved from a violent revolution. The 
South calculating upon a divided North, expected great aid from 
this source; and at one time it seemed more than possible that 
we might have civil war on Northern soil. 



THE ]SrATIO]!T's BLESSING IN TEIAL. Y 

Delivering us from this our earliest and greatest clanger, 
Providence lias smiled upon our efforts to a far greater extent 
than perhaps we appreciate. If we complain that Tnore has not 
been done, it may be well to see what has been done. "We cer- 
tainly have retained Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, 
and Western Virginia, all of which would have been swept into 
this whirlpool of secession but for the presence and activity of 
the Federal forces, thereby greatly increasing the difficulties of 
our position. We have maintained along a sea-coast of several 
thousand miles, a very effective blockade, as proven by its con- 
sequences upon the manufacturing interests of Europe. We have 
made vast military preparations for the public defense by both 
land and sea. We have paid the entire expenditure without 
borrowing a single dollar from any foreign country. It is true, 
that the rebels have also increased their forces; yet in doing this 
they have about exhausted their fighting population ; they can- 
not bring many more men into the field, having already done 
their very hest; whereas the loyal States, having for a time j^Zay- 
ed the game of war in the hope of avoiding its greatest severity, 
are now prepared to sweep down upon them with fleets and ar- 
mies that must be irresistible, No nation of ancient or modern 
times ever presented such a tremendous array of force, as that 
which is now at the disposal of the Government. Nothing but 
the most astounding inactivity and mismanagement, can prevent 
its success. We now understand the foe. We now see what we 
have to do, and are amply prepared to do it. 

Moreover, in respect to the question of actual victories, the 
advantage has been decidedly on the side of the Government. 
True, we failed at Bull Run, and before Richmond, and recently 
in the neighborhood of Washington ; but we did not fail at Hat- 
teras Inlet, at Port Royal, at Roanoke Island, at Newbern, at 
Fort Macon, at Fort Pulaski, at Fort Henry, at Fort Donehon, 
at Somerset, at Sliiloli, at Corinth, at Pea Ridge, at Memphis, at 
New Madrid, at Island No. Ten, at Norfolk, at New Orleans, and 
more recently in Maryland. We have gained more victories 
than we have lost, three to one. We have captured and paroled 
more prisoners of war than the rebels. We have taken from 
them a large number of important positions, which they had 



S THE nation's blessing ET TEIAL. 

gained, not by fighting, but by treason ; and no position of any 
consequence, once recovered from them, is now in their hands. 
They now occupy very much less territory than they did in the 
outset. AVhile they have not been able to carry the war into 
the loyal States, we have possession of very Important points in 
every disloyal State. The Mississippi River, with the exception 
of a single point, is in our hands ; and soon the whole of it will 
be. The rebels can show no such record of facts. Richmond, 
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and Yicksburgh, are their only 
remaining strongholds; and these we shall capture in due season. 
Our great lack hitherto has not been a want of men or means, 
but a want of energy in using them; and while I am not dispos- 
ed to be either a croaker or a fault-finder, I am more than will- 
ing that the Government should be instructed by its own failures. 
The President has doubtless by this time learnt, what we have 
all equally learnt, that a war--po\icj is the only policy that can 
save the nation. 

Looking at these facts, I suggest that as patriots and Chris- 
tians, we have ample occasion to thank God for the favors of his 
good providence thus far, and take courage for the future. 
Though not at the end of the war, we have gained much. We 
are not by any means, as some seem to think, where we were a 
year ago. Believing our cause to be just, we have appealed to 
the God of providence; we have besought him to make our cause 
his care; we have prayed for the President, for his Cabinet, for 
the National Congress, for the Generals and the soldiers; and I 
submit that what has been done through these agencies, even if 
not all that could have been done, is quite sufiicient to make us 
a grateful people. If there are dark sides to the past and the 
present, there are also bright sides; and while we may not over- 
look the former, we should be very careful not to forget the latter. 

I MENTION, THIRDLY, THE GENERAL CHASTISEMENT OF THIS WAR 
AS WELL AS THE DISCIPLINE OF OUR DEFEATS AND DELAYS. — Some- 
times, as with the individual, so with the nation, the very best 
lessons of life are taught, and the highest virtues cultivated, in 
the midst of the severest adversity. Prosperity often generates 
vices which nothing but adversity can cure. When God's judg- 
ments are abroad in the land, the people have a signal opportu- 



THE nation's blessing IN TEIAL. 9 

nitj to learn righteousness. The immutable problems of morality 
and right then make their appearance, and often enter as facts into 
the bosom of history. 

The Pulpit and the Religious Press have descanted at large 
upon the sins of the American people, as sustaining a moral con- 
nection with the evils which we now suffer. This is just and 
proper. It is not mere cant to say, that this war is the rod of 
God for the punishment and correction of a guilty people. We 
have sinned in various ways, and for all our sins deserve the di- 
vine displeasure; and yet I cannot conceal from myself, or with- 
out the grossest hypocrisy attempt to conceal from you, the fact 
that the sin of human bondage is palpably and unmistakably the 
great evil, which as a cause, underlies this war. How any one 
can fail to see this, is to me a marvel. A man can say, that 
slavery has nothing to do with this war ; and so he can say that 
the sun does not shine when millions of eyes attest the fact. For 
what was it that the South threatened to secede in the event of 
Mr. Lincoln's election? Slavery. For what did they make the 
same threat at the time the Missouri Compromise was adopted? 
Slavery. What has been the subject of their persistent agitation 
for the last forty years? Slavery. What has been the great point 
of conflict between the North and the South during the whole 
history of the Government? Slavery, For what have compro- 
mises been made? Slavery. To what did Mr. Crittenden's pro- 
posed compromise refer? Slavery. What was the subject which 
the Peace Congrees met to consider and adjust? Slavery. What 
was the. matter of constant debate in both Houses of Congress 
during the winter of 1860 and '61? Slavery. What was the 
ground upon which the State Conventions based their acts of se- 
cession? Slavery. What is the main point of difference between 
the Constitution of tlie United States and that of the so-called 
Confederate States? Slavery. What was the reason with which 
the Southern heart was fired, and the people precipitated into 
this rebellion? Slaver3^ Who are the aiders and abettors of 
this rebellion? Slaveholders. Who started it? Slaveholders. 
Whence came it? From tlie land of Slavery. It is astonishing, 
that any one, with such a cloud of facts before him, all pointing 
in one dii'ection, can fail to see the cause^ the great and overruling 



10 THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 

cause, of this wicked rebellion. Southern politicians, leaders, and 
conspirators, with slavery as the basis of action, were determined 
to rule the nation, or break up the Union , and when the election 
of Mr. Lincoln indicated that they could not, as hitherto, rule, 
then they resorted to secession. Neither the Abolitionists, nor 
the Republican Party, nor any body else but themselves, can be 
justly held responsible for this work of death. It is their work, 
self-prompted, and without any sufficient occasion, except in the 
desire to perpetuate and extend the institution of slavery. 

Mr. Stephens, the Yice President of the Confederate States, 
alluding to slavery, expressly says: — "This was the immediate 
cause of the late rupture and the present revolution." Speaking 
to Southern men and slaveholders, he had no hesitation in stating 
the true cause of the rupture. He knew what it was; and he 
knew that they knew it. 

The liichinond Examiner^ in a recent article discussing the 
idea of a forced conscription of slaves for purposes of labor, holds 
the following language: "As the war originated and is carried 
on in great part for the defense of the slaveholder in his property, 
rights, and the perpetuation of the institution, he ought to be 
first and foremost in aiding, by every means in his power, the 
triumph and success of our arms. The slaveholder ought to re- 
member, that fur every negro he thus furnishes, he puts a soldier 
in the ranks," The Southern people understand such logic. 
Well did the Neio York Ohserve7\ quoting the above confession, 
add the following withering comment: — "In the annals of hu- 
man crime, dark and bloody as they are, we note no avowal 
more unblushing and barbarous, none that so utterly ignores 
the character and obligations of Christian civilization and com- 
mon humanity, none that so stamps a war with all the attributes 
of sin and shame to be borne in ages of history by those who 
begun and carried it on for such a purpose." 

We do not then mis-state the facts of the case, or misrepresent 
the men, when we trace this war to slavery. Slavery began the 
war, and slavery is now pursuing it. It is the slaveholders' re- 
bellion, plotted by conspirators ambitious for control, and using 
this institution as the means of gaining their end. But for slave- 
ry there would have been no rebellion. The fault is not in the 



11 



North, but in the South. The discussions of the subject by North- 
ern men, their earnest and manly protest against the extension 
of slavery, their unwillingness to have the policy of slavery rule 
the land, even the severe denunciations used by the most extreme 
Abolitionists, — these and the like facts are in no just and proper 
sense the cause of this war. The real cause lies in the men who 
began it, in the purposes and motives which draw their life from 
the institution of slavery. And now all the people, North and 
South, are suffering the dire calamities of war on account of this 
evih Long ago we ought to have met the question like states- 
men, freemen, and Christians; but we did not, deeming it better 
to patch up momentary compromises, whichj as the sequel has 
sadly proved, did not cure the evil, or avert the real danger. 
This has been our mistake and our folly; since the passage of the 
ordinance of 1787, the nation seems to have forgotten that slave- 
ry is a great moral wrong; it has bargained and bartered over 
this evil; and for this we are now feeling tlie chastening rod of 
God. I would not pray for war as a means of grace; yet when 
it comes, I think it well to trace its moral connections, to repent 
of the sin which has occasioned it, to be instructed by it, to listen 
to the voice of God in it, to remember that justice and judgment 
are the habitation of his throne, and gratefully accept the bless- 
ing which, through such a tremendous affliction, he designs to 
convey. We ought thoroughly to wash our hands from all com- 
plicity with this evil, and do what we can to remove it from the 
land. If slavery be the evil for which God is chastening us, 
then his Providence points us to freedom as the moral remedy. 
We shall be wise to look in the direction of the evil. There the 
finger of Providence points; and we may be sure that we can 
make no false issue with Providence. 

So also our defeats and delays, while seeming to be disasters, 
were perhaps necessary as a suitable moral discipline The pub- 
lic mind, twelve months ago, was not in a right posture to turn 
victory to the ends of righteousness. The nation had not suffered 
enough, or thought enough upon the momentous questions of this 
age, to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God. We 
have been slowly learning, as I trust we shall continue to learn, 
that if we wish to preserve our nationality and transmit to our 



12 THE nation's blessing IN TEIAL. 

children a solid and enduring peace, we must rid ourselves of 
that which is the great cause of our present troubles. "Peace," 
says Napoleon, writing from Germany to his brother Joseph who 
was anxious for peace, "is a word that means nothing. It is the 
conditions of peace that are all." If duly humbled and penitent, 
we at length make peace on the right conditions, the historian in 
after- ages, when writing up the events of this hour, free from the 
passions and excitements of the existing struggle, will point to a 
people chastened and disciplined by the God of providence, that 
purity and justice might become the laws of their national life. 
I am anxious for peace, but I am more anxious in respect to the 
principles involved in that peace. I want the Constitution as it 
is, in the letter and spirit of its true meaning, to be the basis of 
peace. Nothing is clearer than that we can have no safe and 
honorable peace that ^ do not ourselves dictate : there is some- 
where an Austerlitz between us and the peace we are seeking; 
and hoping that we shall find it in due season, I accept the chas- 
tisement and discipline, the taxation and disappointment of our 
delays, not as pure and unmixed evils, but as providentially con- 
nected wjth our highest future good. I am not a prophet ; yet if I 
were to make a guess into the future, T should be inclined to take 
this view. At any rate, it is to me a bow of promise, and hence 
of cheerful hope. I think I see God behind this scene, "setting 
in array the forces of thought and principle," and preparing a na- 
tion for his own glory. I think I see a providential and moral 
strategy behind "all the outward equipage and muniments of 
visible war," that in final results will be more beneficent than 
the mere victory of arms. Providence will win in this terrible 
contest, and posterity rejoice. 

I NAME, FOURTHLY, THE PRESENT PROSPECT THAT PrOVIDENCE 
MEANS TO ELIMINATE THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY FROM OUR POLITI- 
CAL SYSTEM. — I have recently taken some pains to inform myself 
in respect to the history of the Slave-Power in this country ; and 
I declare to you, that the investigation has greatly increased ray 
desire that this Power might come to an end. 

By the Slave-Power I mean mainly the social and political 
influence of the large slaveholders, especially those of the Cal- 
houn school, now numbering perhaps not more than one hun- 



THE nation's blessing- IN TEIAL. 13 

dred thousand persons in a population of more than thirty mil- 
lions. This Power once comparatively insignificant, is actuated 
by a class of ideas and interests, that not only unify its purposes, 
but instinctively inspire it with the claim of ascendency. It is a 
solid and compact power. Yielding to the economic necessities 
which arise from the exhaustion of the soil by slave-culture, it 
wants territory for expansion. Moved by the habits of feeling 
which are inherent in its very nature, it wants Slave-States added 
to the Union, as the means of maintaining its political control. 
Like all oligarchies, it is anxious to secure governmental power. 
Its history in this country has been one of constant aggression 
and advancement, especially within the last thirty years. It 
forms the landed aristocracy of the South, rules in the politics 
and social ideas of the Southern people, and for a long period, 
strange as it may seem, has held almost an absolute mastery over 
the Federal Government. By reason of the staples which it pro- 
duces, and the market it furnishes for Northern trade, it has 
identified with itself the selfish interests of commerce. Through 
the medium of the inter-State slave trade, the statistics of which 
are shocking to the feelings of humanity, it has firmly united the 
Border Slave States and the Cotton States in a common policy. 
Slavery would 'not be profitable in the former but for the domes- 
tic slave trade. For years Virginia has pursued the infamous 
business of raising slaves to supply the more Southern market. 
Though this has been to her a great source of revenue, every 
right-minded man must look upon the whole thing with the most 
perfect disgust and abhorrence. 

To please and conciliate the slave interest, pa'rticularl}^ in 
South Carolina and Georgia, the former of which States has been 
a hot-bed of treason during nearly the whole history of the Gov- 
ernment, the framers of the Constitution reluctantly gave their 
consent to the continuance of the foreign slave trade for a period 
of twenty years, — a trade now declared to be piracy punishable 
with death. It doubtless seemed to them wise as a compromise 
to settle the vexed question, and bring these States into the 
Union : — yet, alas ! the bitter experience of this country has ful- 
ly shown, that all efibrts to satisfy the spirit of slavery by con- 
cessions, pnly increase and intensify its demands. No student of 



14 THE NATIOK'^S BLESSmG IN TRIAL. 

our political history can fail to see this truth. It would have 
been far better, if the Fathers fresh from the Kevolution, and 
breathing the warm inspirations of freedom, had stood firmly to 
its principles, even if the formation of the Union had been de- 
layed for a time. 

The territorial expansion of slavery under the lead of the 
Slave-Power, since the adoption of the Constitution, is a most 
alarming fact. Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1796, Mississip- 
pi in 1817, and Alabama in 1819, came into the Union as Slave 
States, being formed out of our original territory, thus enlarging 
the domain ot slavery, and increasing the political strength of the 
Slave-Power. In 18.03, the Government purchased of France the 
territory of Louisiana, paying for it $15,000,000; and in 1819, it 
bought Florida of Spain, paying $5,000,000. Out of this terri- 
tory Slave States were formed and admitted in the Union: — Lou- 
isiana, in 1812: — Arkansas, in 1836: — and Florida, in 1845. 

During the Congress of 1819 and '20, occurred the memora- 
ble contest in respect to Missouri, another Slave State, formed 
out of the Louisiana purchase. At this time, the Free States be- 
came thoroughly alarmed at the dangerous progress of slavery; 
yet the Slave-Power, true to its instincts, insisted that Missouri 
should come in as a Slave State, threatening to dissolve the Union 
if its demands were not granted ; and after a severe struggle, free- 
dom yielded, and slavery triumphed. Thus we have eight Slave 
States added, four out of original territory, and four out of ac- 
quired, swelling the tide of this strange Power. 

But this is not enough. Mexico, of which Texas was a part, 
having achieved her independence, abolished slavery in 1829. 
Almost immediately the Slave-Power cast its eager eye upon 
Texas as a territorial prize too valuable to be lost. The first 
plan was to purchase Texas of Mexico; and when this failed, 
came the effort to get possession of the country, first, by emigra- 
tion, and then by revolution. Citizens of the United States 
wrested Texas from Mexico, and devoted it to the extension of 
slavery. This point being gained, the next thing was to annex 
Texas to this country; and this was surreptitiously accomplished 
by a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress in 1845, with a 
stipulation for dividing it, if necessary, into five States. Here 



THE, nation's blessing IN TEIAL. 15 

is another State that may be divided into several others, added 
to the Slave-Power. 

But again this is not enough. Soon we are involved in the 
Mexican war, resulting in another large acquisition of territory. 
The Slave-Power meant to have California and New Mexico; 
but being disappointed by the unexpected rush of free emigra- 
tion into the former, it resisted the admission of California as a 
Free State; and this led to the celebrated compromises of 1850, 
then proclaimed to be a final settlement of the question of 
slavery. 

The question, however, did not stay settled. In 1854 it was 
opened again by the repeal of the Missouri-compromise for the 
express purpose of providing for the introduction of slavery into 
Kansas ; and following this we have the tremendous struggle of the 
slave-interest to force a slave-constitution upon an unwilling peo- 
ple, actually compelling them to take up arms in their own de- 
fense. Every possible effort was made to keep Kansas as a Free 
State, out of the Union. You are all familiar with the history. 

About this time, this most extraordinary and dangerous Pow- 
er makes the discovery, that slave-property like any other prop- 
erty, has a right, under the Constitution, to go into the Federal 
territories and there be protected by national law ; and in the 
famous Dred Scott case, it gained from the Supreme Court an 
extra-judicial declaration of this doctrine, contrary to all the an- 
tecedents of our political history. Carrying this new doctrine 
into the politics of the South, the prominent leaders of this Pow- 
er, at the last Presidential election, repudiated Mr. Douglas with 
his political friends at the North, and nominated a man who has 
since proved himself a traitor, because Mr. Douglas would not 
adopt this extreme Southern view in respect to the rights of sla- 
very. When the nation had declared its will in the election of 
Mr. Lincoln, these same men began the work of secession, and 
precipitated the country into all the the calamities and horrors 
of war. 

Under the general law, that one's moral instinpts will rule 
his practice, or his practice modify and change his instincts, these 
men now startle the moral sense of the world with the bold pro- 
position, that slavery is essentially a beneficent system, the nor- 



16 THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 

mal state of negro-life, that for which God made the black man, 
divine in its sanctions, and that the special mission of the South 
is to preserve this institution and extend it as far as possible. 
Politicians, and to a very large extent Southern Christians, have 
adopted this view. This doctrine was boldly asserted by Mr. 
Stephens in his speech at Atlanta. The RicTimond Enquirer 
goes even farther than this. " Hitherto the defense of slavery," 
says the Enquirer^ "has encountered great difficulties, because its 
apologists (for they were merely apologists) stopped half way. 
They confined the defense of slavery to n^^ro-slavery alone, aban- 
doning the principle of slavery, and admitting that every other 
form of slavery was wrong. Now, the line of defense is chang- 
ed: the South maintains that slavery is just, natural, and neces- 
sary, and that it does not depend on the diflPerence of complex- 
ions.^^ This is admirably consistent, for if negro-slavery is right, 
then all slavery is right. The question of color has nothing to 
do with the character of the institution. The South are making 
rapid progress in the wrong direction, claiming that cainial in- 
vested in the ruling class, should own labor, and hence govern it 
by an absolute authority. This is the political and social Para- 
dise, towards which the Southern people are marching. 

Though the population of the slave States is, and for a long 
time has been, much less than that of the Free States, a major- 
ity of the Presidents, of Cabinet Ministers, of the members of 
the Supreme Court, of Army and Navy appointments, have been 
Southern men, most of them known to be publicly committed to 
the interests of slavery. Southern men, in number out of all 
proportion to the population of the Slave States as compared 
with that of the Free, havfe filled the places of honor, enjoyed 
the patronage of the Government, and fixed its policy. North- 
ern men have been compelled to make their obeisance to the 
Slave-Power, and swear upon its altars, in order to avoid being 
proscribed by Southern politicians. Let a Northern man be 
even suspected of not being true to the slave-interest, and he at 
once lost cnste with the Sout' 

Such are some of the facts, — not all of them, but merely 
some of them, — marking the career of the Slave-Power in this 
country, which truthful history submits to the inspection of a 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 17 

candid world. Let me add, that they are just such facts as nat- 
urally and necessarily spring from the tendencies and influences 
of slave-society, when attempting to run the race with that 
order of civilization which prevails in free society. The two 
systems are essentially antagonistical. They never were harmon- 
ized, and they never can be. The effort to do it in this country, 
has proved a failure. Between them there is, always has been, 
and always will be, an "irrepressible conflict." You may 
proclaim a truce to this conflict by a compromise; but the quar- 
rel will break out again, and keep breaking out till one or the 
other system reigns with undisputed ascendency. It is not so 
much in the men who are parties to it, as it is in the principles 
and difi'erent ends by which they are actuated. No political 
bonds, without incessant strife, can hold together such conflicting 
elements. Long before modern Abolitionists were known, this 
conflict was going on ; and it will continue till either freedom or 
slavery dies. It made its appearance in the Federal Conven- 
tion that drafted the Constitution ; and ever since that day 
nothing has sufficed to heal the difficulty. We have had as good 
compromisers as the world ever saw ; and every one of them has 
failed of success. Where nature makes a discord, no human 
power can make a harmony. 

It is no just answer to this sketch of the progress and de- 
mands of the Slave- Power, to say that the Free States have also 
increased in number and population. This growth of freedom 
in the removal of slavery from the ISTorthern States, and in the 
addition of new Free States, is simply carrying out the princi- 
ples upon which this Government was founded. Freedom is the 
natural and proper destiny of the American people, to which 
they stand committed before God and man ; and all progress in 
this direction is in exact accordance with the very genius of .our 
social and political life. It is not so with slavery. Slavery is a 
social and political disease, hostile to the first principles of Re- 
publican democracy ; and hence its growth is just so much added 
to the original difficulty. 

Now, in view of the facts thus presented, I sincerely thank 
God for whatever there is of prospect, that one of the conse- 



18 THE nation's blessing IN TKIAL. 

quences of this war will be the downfall of the Slave-Power, 
and of the system on which it rests. It is quite time that such 
a power should come to an end. It has already ruled too long 
for the good of the people. In the language of Professor Cairnes, 
"it forms, as it seems to me, one of the most striking and alarm- 
ing episodes in modern history." He speaks of it "as the most 
formidable antagonist to civilized progress which has appeared 
for many centuries, representing a system of society at once re- 
trograde and aggressive, — a system which containing within it 
no germs from which improvement can spring, gravitates inev- 
itably towards barbarism, while it is impelled by exigencies in- 
herent in its position and circumstances to a constant extension 
of its territorial domain." He says: — "From the year 1819 
down to the present time, the history of the United States has 
been one record of aggressions by the Slave-Power, feebl}^, and 
almost always unsuccessfully, resisted by the Northern States, 
and culminating in the present war." Such is the estimate of a 
profound philosopher, looking at our past and present from the 
other side of the water. Thank God for the hope, that our fu-. 
ture will be different! 

The Government released from the predominant influences of 
slavery, has already done some good things in the right direction ; 
and I trust that it will do more in the same direction. It has 
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. It has by law in- 
terdicted the existence of this institution in the national territo- 
ries. It has made a treaty with England, contemplating more 
vigorous eflforts for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade. 
It has recognized the national character of Liberia and Hayti, 
and entered into diplomatic relations with these Governments. 
It has applied its strong arm to the slave-trader, giving all the 
people practical notice that it means to execute the law against 
this class of offenders. These are steps in the right direction, 
showing that the principles of freedom now rule at Washington. 

The people of Missouri, too, show by their recent election, that 
they have caught the inspiration of freedom. A majority of 
their next Legislature, and at least four of their Kepresentatives 
in the next Congress, are emancipationists, having been elected 
on this distinctive principle. Missouri has received an awful 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 19 

lesson from this war, and seems inclined to profit by it. West- 
ern Yirginina will natnrallj range herself in the same line. In 
the Border States, slavery has already been so demoralized, to 
use the military phrase, as to lose very much of its value, com- 
pactness and strength. The system is shaken and shaking under 
the tread of contending legions. The war has unsettled its foun- 
dations, lessened its profits, and made it insecure. These States 
will soon find it for their interests, as it is clearly their duty, to 
detach themselves from this falling and fading system of evil. 
Every hour that the strife goes on, increases the certainty that 
this must be the final result. 

As I have no doubt, the Federal Government would be very 
glad to have the rebels lay down their arms; but I see ho hope, 
not even the faintest, that the leaders of this rebellion have the 
least idea of doing this thing. If you call a Federal Convention 
to remodel the Constitution, they will be no parties to it. They 
do not mean to compromise this matter at all. They mean to 
fight it out. They utterly scout the idea of returning to the Union 
upon any terms. The Richnond Examiner, in a recent article, 
giving up all hope of intervention by England, remarks;— "We 
are told to beat the North, or submit. We may do the first of 
these things; but if we cannot, we never will do the last. Im- 
portant as it is, this event does not change tl!e position or pur- 
pose of the South the breadth of a hair." Those compromisers 
who are going to settle this difliiculty for ns, as they say, would 
do well to remember, that those who constitute the life and soul, 
the working 2>mm5, of this rebellion, want no compromise. Stead- 
fastly, with a persistence that in a good cause would deserve our 
admiration, do they assert that they will never come back into 
the Union, or consent to a peace not based on Disunion. When 
Henry May went to Richmond as a kind of volunteer peace- 
maker, he was distinctly told that if he were to present them a 
blank sheet of paper, with the full permission to write their own 
terms of reconciliation, they would utterly reject it. The Rich- 
mond Dispatch, of Nov, 10th, in an article on "the elections of 
Yankeedora," says that "the old flag is the most detested of sym- 
bols to the whole body of Southern society." It calls the Ameri- 
can Eagle a "Yankee buzzard," and declares that "if slavery 



20 THE nation's blessing in trial. 

were legalized in every State, the South would never accept the 
condition for a return to the land of bondage." 

It is hence a plain matter of fact, — and we may as well see it first 
as last, — that we must positively conquer the rebels, and coerce 
them into subjection to the Federal authority, as the only possi- 
ble means of restoring the Union. If we cannot do this, we can- 
not gain the end ; and if this will not gain it, nothing else will. 
I think we may set our hearts at rest on this point. And in or- 
der to this end, it is becoming increasingly obvious every day 
that if we really mean to conquer the rebels, we must strike at 
their system of slavery, it being one of their strongholds; and 
make the slave-population our friends, using them and protect- 
ing them as such, as fast as we can reach them. We must cease 
to regard the people in the rebellious States as slaves and masters, 
and simply view them as enemies ov friends. 

Instructed by the course of events, and acting upon this theo- 
ry, the President, who by the Constitution is the "Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy," and to whom is hence intrusted 
the direction of the military force of the nation in the time of 
war, has issued his Proclamation of Emancipation as one branch 
of his t«(zr-policy, giving the rebels ample lime in which to lay 
down their aryis, yet threatening them with its execution, if they 
persist in resisting the authority of the Government. This mea- 
sure has been the subject of much careful and anxious thought on 
the part of the President ; and it deserves the careful considera- 
tion of the people. 

It should be noted in the outset, that this Proclamation is 
aimed, not dX peaceful and law-abiding citizens, not at those who 
are living under the Constitution and recognize its authority, but 
at rebellious com7nunities, including those States and portions of 
States that are in armed rebellion against the Federal Govern- 
ment. This is the attitude of their State authorities. The whole 
power of these communities is now wielded for the destruction 
of the Government. The slaves, irrespective of their own choice, 
to all intents and purposes form a part of this power, as really as 
the soldiers in the field. In their present position, they are 
practically our enemies, as truly as their masters. 

As to the utility of emancipation, considered as a war-mea- 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 21 

sure, the President surrounded by bis Cabinet, is in a better pos- 
ition to judge than any private citizen can possibly be. He has 
long pondered the question; and however wise we may think 
ourselves, "on this subject the President must be wiser, or all 
the rules of probability fail,'' Of course it offends the rebels; 
yet they show conclusively by tlieir own action, that they regard 
it as increasing the difficulties of their position. They are al- 
ready running off their slaves farther South; and when the Pro- 
clamation shall reach the ear of the slave-population, as it most 
certainly will, it will inspire them with the hope of liberty, make 
them the friends of the Union, dispose them to escape from their 
masters, and very likely compel them to withdraw a portion of 
their forces to guard themselves against this cause of danger. So 
far as the measure goes, it must act adversely to the rebellion, 
and favorably to the Union. It must in various ways co-operate 
with the army. While I am no strategist, I have common sense 
enough to see this fact. I can readily see, that an army of inva- 
sion treading the soil of slavery, and fighting on that soil, can 
and must derive very great advantages from the fact that it is 
also an army of emancipation. The slaves can and will fight for 
our cause, if we choose thus to use them. Some of them fought 
in the last war with England; and some of them, in the Kevolu- 
tionary War. Why we should decline their services, especially 
when the rebels are using them for war-purposes, is more than I 
can see. 

We have strangely overlooked the fact, that the slave-popu- 
lation forms a prodigious power either for or against us in this 
struggle, and that it will be one or the other according as we 
treat that population. It is indeed a very serious question, whe- 
ther we can conquer the South at all, if the slaves are practically 
arrayed against us. In 1860, the number of white males between 
the ages of 18 and 45, was about 4,000,000, for the joyal States, 
and 1,300,000 for the disloyal States. In the latter of these States 
you have about 3,500,000 slaves, of whom two millions may be 
estimated as laborers. From these laborers deduct 300,000 em- 
ployed in domestic service; and this leaves 1,700,000 plantation 
hands engaged in tilling the soil and furnishing the productions 
necessary for the support of the army, and hence actually work- 



22 THE nation's blessing in teial. 

ing in the cause of the rebellion. Add j;lns 1,700,000 slaves to 
the 1,300,000 whites between the ages of 18 and 45, and you 
have a military and producing force of 3,000,000 in the disloyal 
States opposed to one of 4,000,000 in the loyal. This makes the 
struggle, as to the question of numbers, very much nearer one of 
equality than we have been wont to imagine. Transfer the slave- 
population to our side: adopt a policy which may and must, to 
a very considerable extent, accomplish this result; make the ne- 
gro loyal to the Union rather than to his master: and by the sim- 
plest rules of arithmetic, you will so much weaken the rebellion, 
and strengthen the cause of the Union. Decline this policy; and 
you are doing the very thing that will best please the rebels, since 
it leaves the slaves as so many human beings to be employed by 
them for their own purposes. If this be good sense, I confess 
that I cannot see it. Are we so prejudiced against black men, 
that we propose to have our sons, and brothers, and fathers, by 
the thousands and tens of thousands, killed on the field of battle, 
rather than have our cause served by black men? This is paying 
a large penalty for prejudice. The South are guilty of no such 
folly. 

Let it be borne in mind too, that if we mean to withdraw the 
slaves from the service of the rebels, and enlist them in our be- 
half, it must be done by the proclamation of freedom. There is 
no other way to gain the end. They are persons — human 
beings, and not passive things to be taken away by force, — to 
whom the prospect oi freedom will be a motive of action. If we 
repel them, or refuse to make any appeal that can reach them 
and influence their action, they will remain just where they are, 
serving their masters, and serving the rebellion, and thus pro- 
tracting the war for an indefinite period. Their number is so 
great as to make their position a question of very serious mo- 
ment. 

Some people who are quite apt to see a ghost whenever the 
word slavery is mentioned, think that the President should have 
done this thing, and not said it, How can he do it without say- 
ing it? Saying it is the efi'ective way of doing it. If he wishes 
to enlist these people in the cause of the Union, he must tell 
them so, and upon what terms; and this is just what he has done 



THE nation's blessing IN TEIAL. 23 

in the Proclamation. It is for their hearing as well as that of 
their masters. 

Some also are solicitous lest a servile insurrection may result 
from the Proclamation. Of this there is no prospect; and if 
it should occur, the fault will be wholly with the rebels. An 
insurrection of white men against the rebel-Government we 
should welcome and foster, as so much gain to the Union cause; 
and I am not able to see why a needful war-measure to conquer 
the rebellion should be ommitted, simply because Hack men 
may possibly take it into their heads to fight for their own liber- 
ty. We have tried war on peace principles quite long enough 

Some also object because the Proclamation is not distinctively 
an^^■ slavery. To this I reply, that whatever may be the Pres- 
ident's moral convictions, he could not as a military commander, 
make this a primary feature. His object is to conquer the re- 
bellion and restore the Union: and as a means to this end, he 
resorts to emancipation in the rebellious States. 

Some '^QY&o'nQ d'owhi ihQ constitutionality of the act,* confound- 
ing, as I humbly conceive, questions that differ most essentially. 
Has the President, in the time oi jpeace^ the civil or administra- 
tive right under the Constitution to adopt such a measure? 
Clearly not. Has he as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
and Navy," in the time of war^ and for the purpose of weaken- 
ing and destroying the enemy, the right to abolish slavery in 
the rebel-States? Undoubtedly. He has a right to do anything 
and everything, not contrary to the usages of civilized warfare, 
that may be necessarj^ to the end. The Constitution makes him 
the "Commander-in-Chief;" it puts into his hands the entire 
military power of the nation ; but it does not prescribe to him the 
way^ as it plainly could not, in which he shall subdue the enemy. 
This he must determine for himself in the exercise of his best 
discretion, subject only to those limitations which are recognized 
among civilized communities. "No rebel has any right" of ei- 
ther property or life, "a regard to which should weaken or ob- 
struct any military measure needed to subdue the rebellion." 
For this purpose the "Commander-in-Chief" has as much right 
to emancipate the slaves in the rebellious States, as he w-ould 
have to drill a regiment or bombard a city. The one is just as 



24 THE nation's blessing in teial. 

constitutional as the other ; and both as war-measures, are mat- 
ters for his discretion. The slaves are a portion of the Southern 
people. If regarded as the property of rebels, the Government 
has the same right to seize and use them for its own purposes, 
that it would have to seize and use their horses or any other prop- 
erty. If regarded as persons^ then the Government has a right 
to detach them from the interests of the rebellion, to secure 
their services, and take any measures necessary to these ends. 

Such a war-policy in order to be effective, must act upon the 
rebellious communities as a whole. It plainly cannot institute 
courts of inquiry in these communities, to determine who are 
■ rebels and who are not. If there be loyal persons there who suffer 
from the loss of their slaves in consequence of this measure, this is 
the misfortune of their position; and they must look to the Govern- 
ment to do them justice afterwards. A great military necessity 
cannot stop on their account, especially while the Government 
has no practical evidence that there ar'e any such persons. "Indi- 
vidual justitffe" applicable to such cases, "must wait for calmer 
times." 

But does not the Proclamation undertake to repeal the laws 
of the Slave States now in rebellion? Not at all. It says no- 
thing about those laws. It leaves them where they are, in the 
statute-book. Under the pressure of a military necessity, it sim- 
ply removes the slave from under those laws; and so far as it 
goes into effect, makes him a freed-man. It deals not with the 
laws, but with the specific person or persons who are held as 
slaves. In time of war, the military power suspends the action 
of civil law, upon urgent necessity. It seizes the property of the 
enemy, and applies it to its own uses. So in this case, the Pres- 
ident adopts a policy, by which he hopes to secure and appro- 
priate to the benefit of the Government that which the rebels 
Qd\\ property, and which they are using with great effect against 
the Government. In doing this he does not annul or repeal a 
single law of any Slave State. No such power is assumed. In- 
deed, if every one of the slaves were actually to gain his freedom, 
the laws themselves in regard to slavery in the rebellious States 
would still remain, just as the laws in regard to any other kind 
of property. Suppose, the President could, and should, for mil- 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 25 

itary purposes, seize nine-tenths of the horses of the rebels, would 
any man pretend that this is a repeal of State laws in regard to 
horses? True, the horses under the rights of war would pass 
into the service of the Governtaent; yet the laws of the State 
would not be repealed. They would afford no protection, for the 
time being, against the right of seizure; and this is but the com- 
mon incident of war, following from the general right to disable 
an enemy. Suppose, the President selects a policy adapted to 
take away the slaves from the enemy, on the same theory, and 
under the same rights of war, that would justify him in taking 
his horses, will any one say that this annuls or repeals the laws 
of slavery? True, the slaves are gone in this case, and so were 
the horses in the otlier; and if both are regarded as property, 
then the President's right to take either or both, for military 
purposes, is abundantly recognized by the laws of war. He does 
not repeal State laws in the one case any more than he does in 
the other; and in neither does he repeal them. 

How will the Courts decide this constitutional question? 
They will not decide it at all until they reach it; and they cer- 
tainly will not reach it until the rebellion is subdued. The ques- 
tion is not now^ in the Courts, and will not be until after the 
President has done his work. As to what they will then do, we 
must wait for time to supply the answer. They certainly cannot 
remand back to the condition of slavery those who have actually 
acquired their freedom under the Proclamation, any more than 
they can return to the rebels property which has been seized and 
coniiscated by the Government, The status of freedom being 
once acquired, is fixed. The slave ceases to be an article of prop- 
erty, and becomes a man, whom no existing law can return to 
bondage. The Courts cannot, either during the war or after it, 
reverse the actual consequences that arise from the Proclama- 
tion. If one half, or even the whole of the slave-population be- 
come free, then they must remain free. They are no longer the 
subjects of slave-laws, any more than any other free persons. 
The Courts must therefore recognize that status in which the 
Proclamation has actually placed them, and which the President 
pledges the executive government of the United States to main- 
tain. True, this status grows out of a military act in the first in- 



26 THE nation's blessing in teial. 

stance; and so does the seizure and resulting title of any other 
species of rebel-property grow out of a military act. The Gov- 
ernment might, if carrying out the theory of slavery, treat the 
slaves coming into its possession as property, and sell them, just 
as it would have the right to hold or sell the horses of rebels; 
and if so, then it may also give them their freedom, which is the 
theory of the President's Proclamation. 

How far then will the Proclamation be likely to go in the 
direction of freedom ? How much will it actually accomplish in 
this respect ? It will at least be of as much service to the cause 
of freedom, as it is to that of the Union. Every slave that it 
takes from the rebels, and places on the side of the Union, it will 
consecrate to freedom. This we think, may be regarded as a 
fixed fact. "The slave" says an able writer on this point, 
"whom we capture as property, is, after his capture and the trans- 
fer to himself of all the captured title of his master, no longer 
a chattel, but a man, insusceptible of recapture, except as a 
prisoner of war, entitled to all the rights and privileges of such 
persons." The capture forever extinguishes the master's title, 
and devotes the slave to freedom. By his own act in escaping 
from the master, and under the Proclamation making himself an 
ally of the Union, he does that which is equivalent to a capture. 
He captures himself, and forever becomes a freeman. The Pro- 
clamation as adressed to the masters, furnishes a motive for them 
to discontinue this wicked rebellion: but if they will not heed 
it, then it invites the slaves to become our allies with the pro- 
mise of freedom, pledging the Government to "maintain" this 
freedom, and also to do " no act or acts" to hinder " any efforts 
they may make for their actual fi'eedom." Already, without 
any such pledge, thousands of slaves have fled from their 
masters ; and more would have done so, if the policy of the Gov- 
ernment had been different. General Butler designated them as 
contraband of war, — persons indeed, yet claimed by their masters 
2iQ property. "When the new policy shall go into effect, following 
in the line of the army, and penetrating into the heart of the rebel- 
lious States, these so called contrabands will be greatly increased. 

The prospect, moreover, is that the leaders of the rebellion, 
having staked everything upon their own success, will continue 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 2*7 

the figlit, till the Southern people are desolated and blasted as 
perhaps no other people ever were in the history of man. If 
they persevere as they seem fully determined to do, and the 
Government shall also persevere as it certainly must, then there 
will not be much left of slavery at the end of this contest. The 
war provoked by it, will prove its ruin, sweeping it away in the 
wake of that general destruction that must overtake Southern 
society. Its power will be so broken and scattered, that what is 
left of it, will hardly be w^orth keeping. 

This reasoning goes upon the supposition, that the struggle is 
to be one of very great severity; and unless the loyal States re- 
cede from their present position, and consent to a dismember- 
ment of the nation, of which there is no prospect, then, judging 
from the temper of the South, we must conclude that just 
such a struggle is before us. The conditions upon which the 
contending parties are willing to make peace, are so essentially 
different, that nothing but the most absolute conquest, on the one 
side or the other, can ever bring peace. The Government will 
not yield to the demands of the rebels, and they will not yield 
to the demands of the Government; and hence the sword must 
settle the controversy. As I have no doubt, we shall conquer 
them in the end; but I see no prospect of this result until they 
feel the extremest desolations of war, carrying away slavery and 
almost everytliing else in its train, and placing Southern society 
on a new basis. This, while breaking down the rebellion, will 
be very sure to widen the area of freedom. Once relieved from 
bondage and tasting the sweets of liberty, the slave population 
cannot be reduced to their former condition. The now ruling 
class will be compelled to accept this result. 

So far then as the Constitution is concerned, we see no just 
ground of complaint with either the Proclamation itself, or the 
freedom which, in connection with the war, is likely to grow out 
of it. If the public mind had not been so long misguided on 
the slavery-question, the President's policy would have been 
welcomed with universal acclaim. It is a noticeable fact, that 
loyal Southern men do not complain of this policy. 

Colonel Hamilton says: — "Yes, I accept the President's Pro- 
clamation, and I hail it with gratitude and joy." 



28 THE nation's blessen-g in trial. 

Ex-Secretarj Holt, of Kentucky, who ought to be very good 
authority with all loyal people, in a recent letter, thus writes: — 
"My faith in all this matter is simple and briefly stated. It is 
this: — For all things that are for the Union — against all things 
that are against it^ "No human institution, no earthly interest, 
shall ever by me be weighed in the scales against the life of 
my country." "Is it not childish prattle to say, that the 
South can claim to be at the same moment i\iQ protege and the 
destroyer of the Constitution? Does it not require an audacity 
absolutely satanic, to insist that the beneficent provisions of that 
hallowed instrument shall be secured to States and people who 
are spurning and spitting upon its authority, and who are lead- 
ing forward vast armies to overwhelm it, and with it the homes 
and hopes of all who are rallying in its defense?" "War, cer- 
tainly one like this, in self defense, — is clearly constitutional; 
but if such a war has its restraints, it has also its riglits and du- 
ties, prominent among which is the right and duty of weakening 
the enemy by all possible means, and thus abridging the san- 
guinary conflict." "The Constitution is the charter of national 
life, and not of national death." I commend these earnest and 
patriotic words to those, who fear lest the President's Proclama- 
tion may have tra.nscended the Constitution. 

It cannot be too strongly impressed upon our minds, that the 
Government in this war, is dealing with rebellious communities^ — 
with "States and people who are spurning and spitting" upon the 
authority of the Constitution. . It is not now a mob overcoming 
the State authorities. It is an organized rebellion, having all the 
forms of a political society. The States as such, with all the 
machinery of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, are 
in rebellion against the United States. The people, whether con- 
sidered as individuals or political societies, are in the same posture. 
Practically there is no loj'-alty in these rebellious States. The 
loyalty of individirals, however real as a personal sentiment, has 
no effective being. It amounts to nothing. It at present fur- 
nishes no basis on which to build. Such is very clearly the 
state of the facts; and with these facts as they are, the Govern- 
ment has to deal. 

What then becomes of the doctrine of State Rights, as limit- 



THE nation's blessing EST TRIAL. 29 

ing or restraining the legislative and executive action of the Gov- 
ernment against States in rebellion? Are there any snch rights 
known to the Constitution? Has a State any constitutional and 
legal status, except as a member of the Federal Union? Is it a 
State at all in the constitutional sense, when the whole machin- 
ery of State-Government, and practically the whole body of the 
people, are not only out of the Union, but actually making war 
upon it? It surely is in no position to make an appeal to consti- 
tutional rights ; whatever rights it had, are forfeited by its own 
acts; and in attempting to conquer such a State and such a people, 
provided the conquest itself be constitutional, the Government 
may resort to any and every measure not inconsistent with civ- 
ilized warfare. The Constitution clearly authorizes the conquest; 
and the code of war defines the method. The Government may 
annihilate the State, remodel it, change its boundary-lines, burn 
down its cities, hang its State officers, place it under martial law, 
alter its institutions, or do anything else, necessary to conquest, 
and compatible with the code of war. We have no precedents 
in our own history as to the method of dealing with such a case; 
the Constitution furnishes no description of the method; it sim- 
ply bestows upon Congress the power "to provide for calling 
forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress in- 
surrections, and repel invasions," making the President the " Com- 
mander-in-Chief" of the militia when so called forth; and then 
leaves the method with the'National Congress and the Executive. 
Their business is to suppress the insurrection by force, doing 
whatever may be necessary to the end. In doing this they are 
not bound to consult either the laws or the institutions of a re- 
bellious State. They are not bound to execute those laws. Their 
work is conquest: this is tlie necessity and duty of the hour; and 
whatever, not repugnant to the laws of civilized nations, will 
contribute to this end, may be done. 

In the commencement of this struggle, the Northern people 
and the Government also, assuming the existence of a large and 
powerful element of loyalty in the South, were anxious to treat 
the rebellious States, so far as possible, as if they were practi- 
cally in the Union, and therefore entitled to the privileges secur- 
ed by the Constitution. Now, whatever we may say as to the 



80 THE nation's blessing in teial. 

legal invalidity of secession, as a matter of fact these States are 
out of the Union; they are represented in another government, 
and that government is making war upon the United States. 
These are the stern facts of the case; and with them we have to 
deal without any precedent for our guide, except that furnished 
by the usages of war. The doctrine of State-Rights as existing 
under the Constitution, does not meet the case. It neither defines 
the method of conquest, nor that of restoring the Union after 
the conquest is gained. Those who continue to shout this doc- 
trine, interpreting it as they do in times of peace, have a very 
beautiful idea; but the misfortune is, that it has no practical appli- 
cation to the matter in hand. What are they pleading for? The 
State-Rights of rehellious States. Are there any such rights 
known to the Constitution? Especially, are these rights such as 
to hold back the Government from any measure necessary to 
subdue the rebellion? If so, we had better abandon the whole 
theory of coercion at once, and let the rebels go. As traitors to 
the sovereign authority, they surely cannot claim the rights of 
loyal citizens. Viewed in this character, they have the right to 
be '"'■ constittctionally hung.'''' As helligerents^ they have only the 
rights incident to war. Hence the plea of State-Rights urged in 
behalf of rebellious States, has no foundation in the Constitution. 
There is not a sentence in that sacred charter to support the idea. 
Those who urge it, either misapprehend the facts, or are in sym- 
pathy with traitors. 

There is another constitutional question, not involved in the 
President's Proclamation, yet very strongly suggested by the ex- 
igencies and revelations of this war. Perhaps the people will 
have to consider it before we reach the end of the pending strug- 
gle. It is this: — Has the Government of the United States, — 
the occasion imperatively requiring it as a means of self-preser- 
vation — the right to abolish slavery in all the Slave States? It 
is a first truth, that every nation has a right to exist, and do what- 
ever may be necessary to secure its own safety; and if it be a 
fact, as the events of this war seem to show, that the existence 
and safety of this nation require the removal of slavery, wliy 
may it not interpose its power and effect this removal? Why 
may it not, by law and executive action, confiscate and set free all 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 31 

the slaves that belong to rcheWi This if carried into effect, would 
at once remove the largest part of the evil. In respect to loyal 
slaveholders, the Government would, according to the Fifth Ar- 
ticle of the Amendments to the Constitntion, be bound to render 
a just compensation. Slaves are their private property in law; 
and if taken from them to secure the public safety, then they 
would be entitled to compensation. They would thus receive an 
equivalent for their loss, and hence suffer no wrong. That pri- 
vate property may be taken for the public good, is implied in 
the very article which requires a "just compensation" when it is 
taken, Slave-propei'ty is no more sacred in the right of tenure 
against an imperative public necessity, than any other property. 
If the Government may take the land o^ the master, paying him 
for it, why may it not also take the slave upon the same theory? 
If the public authority may destroy a building to arrest a con- 
flagration that threatens to burn' down a city, why may not the 
nation destroy that which perils its very life, dealing with trai- 
tors by confiscation, and with loyal slaveholders by a "just com- 
pensation?" 

The whole question, as it seems to me, is mainly one of fact: — 
Can the nation conquer the rebellion, and restore peace to the 
land, without removing slavery? If it cannot, then unless the 
Constitution be a charter of "national death," the legislative 
sovereignty of the nation must be competent to the removal of 
slavery. The President's plan of inviting the Slave States to 
unite with the General Government for this purpose, is good so 
far as it goes; it may be sufficient; it may be the very best way 
of reaching the end; yet the progress of events may compel both 
Government and people to march squarely up to the question 
of general emancipation throughout all the Slave States, adopt- 
ing the theory of confiscation for rebels, and that of compensa- 
tion for loyal slave-holders. We have not yet seen the end of 
this war by any means; nor can we to-day tell, what we shall 
have to do before we reach the end. I am strongly inclined to 
think, that a general breaking up of the whole slave-system, in 
connection with the war, as a part of its history, and as a mea- 
sure of war, will be found the shortest and surest road to the end. 
I do not see much prospect of final victory, and none of perma- 



32 THE nation's blessing in trial. 

nent peace, without this result. Clear am I that the great polit- 
ical and moral benefit of this appalling struggle will be lost, un- 
less we rid the land of slavery. I go for the Union even with 
slavery, though not hecause of it; and I certainly go for it with- 
out slavery. I am for maintaining the integrity of the Union 
without any conditions; I believe in unconditional \oj2i\ij\ yet 
it does seem to me, that one great purpose of Providence in this 
war is to blast and destroy the system of slavery, by delivering 
the rebels over to a most infuriated madness on the one hand, 
and on the otlier, compelling the loyal people, by the actual ne- 
cessities of their position, to apply their hand to the work. We 
shall have to do more than simply say: — "Let slavery die, if ne- 
cessary to save the Union." We shall have to say: — "Let sla- 
very die." 

Greatly, very greatly, should I have preferred the gradual 
removal of this evil without the terrible ordeal of war, believing 
this to be best for all classes ; but if this institution shall now 
perish, or so far perish that its final death will be near at 
hand, under the terrible arbitrations of war, it will not be the 
first instance in the history of the world in which the sword has 
accomplished a like result. It seems to be the order of Pro- 
vidence that slavery shall at length die, peaceably if it will, 
violently if it decline the peaceful method. And if a sovereign 
and righteous Providence shall appoint this result, and thus 
purify our political system, as one of the efi'ects of this war, I 
shall thank God for it. It will, in my judgment, be the be- 
ginning of brighter hopes avj'l better days in this land. I do 
not rejoice in the war, or in the afflictions and snfi'erings of the 
people, or in the madness of the rebels; but if this be pro- 
videntially the painful birth of libcr'^y to all the people, then in 
the result gained I do most devoutly rejoice, and that too, not 
merely for the sake of the black man, but equally for the sake 
of the white man. The blessing will fall on both. In every 
point of light, slavery is a great curse to both. While it 
degrades and oppresses the victim, it demoralizes the ruling 
class. It generates its own peculiar vices; makes the South 
poor ; impoverishes the land ; limits the modes of industry ; 
places the ban of dishonor upon labor, and justly exposes the 



THK nation's BLESSTNO IN TRIAL. 33 

nation to the reproach of the civilized world. Such a system 
ought to die; it ought not to be anywhere, especially in this 
land of professed liberty; and sincerely do I bless God for what- 
ever there is of prospect, that its dying day is near at hand. 
Before this war began it seemed strong, proud, and defiant ; the 
philanthropist could see nothing indicating its early downfall; 
the moral remonstrance of Christian argument and appeal 
scarcely reached its ear; the Northern people Jiad no idea of 
politically interfering with it as a local institution of the Slave 
States; they were willing to abide by the compromises, and 
pledges of the Constitution : yet now, contrary to the designs and 
expectations of the rebels, this odious system has received, and 
is receiving, such severe and heavy blows as to form a reason- 
able prophecy of approaching death. 

I NAME, FINALLY, THE GLORIOUS PROSPECTS OF THIS NATION IN 
THE FUTURE, IF WE AUE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS CONTEST. Every- 
thing depends on the question of victory. If we fa:l, the nation 
is dismembered, and the country politically ruined. If we get 
discouraged, and stop mid-way in the effort, we shall have rolled 
up an enormous public debt and sacrificed thousands of lives 
for no purpose. If we are defeated, the South will be trium- 
phant, coming out of the struggle with the advantages, prestige, 
and imperious bearing of victory, and withal claiming the 
victor's right to dictate the terms upon which peace shall be 
made. We shall then have at least two nations on this Conti- 
nent, so diverse in their policy, and naturally so hostile, that all 
hopes of permanent peace will be at an end. We shall have, in 
immediate contact with us, a great slave-empire, flushed with 
victory, ambitious to extend its dominion far and wide, deter- 
mined to make itself a great military power, and amply proving 
its capacity to do this by having triumphed over the armies of 
the Union. We should be constantly quarreling with suoh a 
neighbour. A precedent, moreover, would be established in 
favor of secession, that would open the way for other revolu- 
tions. The Western States, now so loyal, would be very likely 
to set up for themselves, or drawn by the attraction of their own 
interests, at length affiliate with the Southern Confederacy. Tho 
Southern people would then become the ruling people, and if 



F 



34 THE NATI0^''S BLESSIXG i:S TEIAl. 

inspired by tlieir present instincts, spread the institution of 
slavery over a large portion of this Continent. They would be 
a fighting people. Mexico would fall into the.:' hands. The 
PaciHc States would go with them, or detaching th'^mselves from 
us, form an independent nationality. Our ].o>U; >;i among the 
nations of the earth would be entirely altereil. Ve should no 
longer be the Great Republic. We should V. i ' prey of our 
mutual animosities, and also of the intrigues -h designs 

of despots in the old world, having but little a.n ,j;y at home, 
and less credit abroad. Our commerce would languish, and our 
rapidly growing cities sink into decay. Thus disintegrated, v^e 
should either repudiate our public debt, or be crushed to tlio 
earth under its weight. Such is the disheartening and even 
appalling picture set before ns, if Ave fail. Let those, if any 
there be, who are willing to relinquish the struggle on account 
of its present sacrifices, and yield to the demands of the South, 
duly count the cost of the failure. Let those who prophesy 
failure, and seem half-willing to have events confirm the truth 
of the prophecy, estimate, if they can, the length and breadth, 
the height and depth of the disaster involved in the meaning of 
this word. Individnal men die, and their places are speedily fill- 
ed by others; but when a nation like that of the United States 
shall perish, proving the greatness and glory of its life in a short 
career, and also by its death proving its incapacity for permanent 
life, where, on what sliores, by the agency of what men, shall 
the like be ever again reproduced? If the Republican principle 
committed to our hands, canno' stand the test of time, and 
triumph over rebellion, — if more than twenty millions of ])eople 
cannot conquer eight millions, half of whom arc slaves, and will 
be our friends if we have the wisdom to make them such, — if 
with all our advantages we have not manhood, and energy, and 
endurance enough for this purpose, — if this be .so. then I have 
greatly mistaken the character of the Northern j^cople. I shall 
believe such a disgraceful fiict when I see it, and -'Ot till then. 
We may be less excitable and mercurial than the South, and hence 
may not move quite as rapidly; yet the sober, solid, patriotic 
sense of the Northern mind never will, and never can settle down 
upon the doctrine of failure. We cannot afibrd to fail. 



THE nation's BLESSljJiTG IX TRIAL. 35 

If, on tliG otlier hand, we win and establish a righteous 
peace, tlien no other nation on earth has before it such a bril- 
liant future. I am quite aware that it will take time and a great 
amount of wisdom to reconstruct tlie Union after victory is 
gained ; and moreover, at present, certainly until we better 
know pi-ecisely what the difficulties are, we cannot fix upon any 
specific {)rogramme of measures. We must deal with the case 
as it presents itself. If we can conquer the rebels, we can find 
the ways and means of managing them afterwards. The con- 
quest will break up their armies, exhaust their power, destroy 
the influence of their leaders, place them in the hands of the 
Federal Government, and compel them to accept such terms as 
the Government may choose to dictate. If the system of sla- 
very shall be overthrown, the present. ruling class will lose their 
power; the nonslaveholding whites, numerically the largest por- 
tion of the people, will acquire a new importance in the general 
economy of Southern life; and very likely there will be a large 
emigration of Northern free labor into the Southern States. 
Military subjection, undoubte ly necessary in the first instance, 
will gradually do its work, and give place to a different orcj^r of 
things. New ideas, new men, new institutions, and new modes 
of industry- will take possession of the South. Southern society 
will itself be reconstructed^ and enter upon a new style of life ; 
and this, as I fondly believe, will, in due season, bring about 
the reconstruction 'of the Union. All political societies, how- 
ever violent their passions for the moment, at last yield to 
their interests and their necessities; this is their history, and I 
do not anticipate that the South either will or can be an excep- 
tion to this rule. Conquer thein : hold possession of their ports 
of entry: command their rivers with j'our gunboats: release 
the masses of the common people from a despotism that now 
overhangs them like a cloud of death: break down the Slave- 
Power: show to the non-slaveholdiug whites, that their interests 
lie with the Union, and the principles of a free democracy, 
rather than wirii an aristocracy of landlords : send into the 
South a powcrfr.l current of Northern emigration: give to the 
millions of slaves, nearlv half of the whole population, a chance 
to do something for their humanity; md at no distant period, 



36 THE nation's blessing in trial. 

a reconstructed Union will be the result, resting, as I believe, 
on a much lirmer basis than ever before. I believe this the 
shortest and surest way to the end. 

This point being gained, or in a good way of being gained, 
we then enter upon a new career as a nation. We shall have 
demonstrated to ourselves, and to all the world, the reality of 
our national life, proving that we are, and are to be, one people, 
from the Canadas to the Gulf of Mexico, and so proving it that 
no earthly power will be likely again to call it in question. We 
shall have demonstrated our capacity to conquer the greatest 
rebellion known in the history of man, and thus shown that 
Republican self-government stretching over the length and 
breadth of a Continent, is no failure. In the very process of 
doing this, we shall have acquired those elements of character, 
those habits of mind, that military experience, and those mili- 
tary preparations, which secure respect among the nations of 
the earth. It will be well understood that we are a strong 
people, and that no nation can expect to trespass upon our rights 
with impunity. We shall at once be a first class nation, whose 
ability to defend its rights will protect it against injury. Eng- 
land, whose policy towards this coimtry, during this contest, has 
been unnatural, unkind, and ineffably mean, will learn, possibly 
by a dear bought experience, that this Western Republic is not 
going to die, either to gratify the jealousy and hatred, or fulfill 
the evil prophecies, of a self-conceited and heartless aristocracy. 
Our success will speedily and wonderfully improve the national 
manners of England. Like most other nations, she respects 
power ; and she will find power here to respect. The theory so 
common among despots, that a Republican Government resting 
upon the broad shoulders of the people, cannot be a great mili- 
tary and naval power, will, by our success, receive a most 
signal rebuke. We shall prove the error by the demonstration 
of fact. 

We shall also have settled the long standing quarrel on this 
Continent between freedom and slavery, superseding the necessi- 
ty for compromises, restoring our national life to its normal con- 
dition, removing, as I hope, the apple of discord from the land, 
making ourselves politically a homogeneous people, and proving 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. SY 

by the practical test of war^ as we have already done by that of 
peace, that society organized on tlie basis of free labor, is vastly 
superior to one organized on the opposite basis. This single re^ 
suit if -gained, will be politically, socially, economically, and 
morally, a very large compensation for the cost and sacrifices 
incident to this war. Ever since the Union was formed, we 
have been drifting towards the present crisis ; in other days 
wise and good men have seen it and feared it, and done what 
they could to avoid it: during the administration of General 
Jackson the heavens gathered blackness over our heads; and 
and but for his great promptitude, we should then have been in- 
volved in a civil war. Ever since that day, the current has been 
setting in the direction of a rupture between the North and 
South ; Southern policy, under the managemefit of the Slave 
Power, has been steadily advancing in its demands : the North 
has from time to time yielded to these demands : at length the 
rupture has come: the crisis is upon us; and if we can now 
settle the questions w'hicli have led to this crisis, and which we 
must eettle in order to avoid a like one in the future, we shall 
have done a work as important as any ever committed to any 
generation of men. la this aspect of the case we are living in a 
glorious age. 

Laying down the sword under these auspices, and resuming 
the peaceful industries of life, we shall, in a comparatively short 
time, repair the damages of the mighty struggle, and spread our- 
selves out in a career of agricultural, mechanical, and commer- 
cial activity, that must make us the great nation of the future. 
We are the right kind of people to do this work. We have a 
territory, whose vast amplitude and natural wealth furnish the 
physical conditions of success. Our religion has a tendency to 
elevate and energize the public character, tilling the intellect with 
the inspiration of great ideas, imi moving the heart with the 
most sacred impulses of feeling. (Hir duplicate system of Gov- 
ernment, Federal and State, — the one national, and the other 
local, — is eminently suited to extend its broad banner over a 
whole Continent. Like the solar system, it has a central sun 
with revolving planets, whose smaller movements lie within the 
comprehensive orbit of the nation's life. Our growth of popu- 
lation, rising in three-quarters of a century from three millions 



38 THE Iv^ATIOX's BLESSING IX TRIAL. 

to more than thirty, will, at this rate, in another equal period, 
present the spectacle of a people, not only numerically greater 
than any nation in Europe, but nearly equal to the present pop- 
ulation of all the European nations put together. Most of these 
nations grow very slowly; some of tiiem, not at all; whereas we, 
a .young and thrifty people, have scarcely passed the gristle of 
this process. England is about as much of a man as she is likely 
to be for a long time to come. She has not, and she cannot have, 
the elements of growth which exist in the greatest abundance 
here. She does not to-day feed her own population; and but 
for her commerce, England would soon starve. We can live 
without England very much better than she can live without us. 
She wants our breadstuffs quite as much as our cotton. 

Let us theQ go on under the well tested principle of E Plur- 
thus Unum; let all parts recognize one, and but one Political 
Centre; let us be content to be American citizens; let us now 
save ourselves from beinc: denationalized and disinte^jrated into 
hostile fragments; let us explode the barbarous dream of a slave- 
empire; let us make the institutions of liberty the universal 
breath and soul of our national life; let us as a great and grow- 
ing people, go forth to the work of existence in the fear and 
worship of the true God, building our churches at home, and send- 
ing tlie light of Christian truth to the ends of the earth : — let us do 
these things, and our future will be immeasurably more glorious 
than our past. Let us fail, and we shall prove ourselves a people 
unlit to command a great destiny. When I think of this future 
as it will be, if we now triumph, in contrast with what it must 
be if we fail, all the feelings of my heart are kindled into a flame 
of patriotic, and I hope. Christian ardor. Fail! Speak that 
word in the ear of dotards and cowards. It has no place in my 
vocabulary. We must succeed. Success is our duUj. The God 
of order and law as well as of liberty and justice, commands us 
to succeed. Unborn generations are waiting to reap the blessings 
of our success. Trusting in God, and in our own right arms, . 
succeed we can, and succeed we will. If the rebels are in ear- 
nest, we will be i:i earnest This, in a word, is ray doctrine for 
the American people: — Rkbklliox shall submit to the au- 

THORHY OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, OR ITS AGENTS SHALL 
PERISH BY THE SWORD. 



THE nation's blessing IN TRIAL. 39 

I have thus, my brethren, opened my whole heart to^you on 
this subject. I might have discussed other themes; a Thanks- 
giving service is very suggestive; yet I have felt that at this 
time U was due to you, and due to the God of truth, to consider 
those subjects to which the finger of Providence is pointing. 
In the war which is upon us, and from which we so deeply suf- 
fer, I have sought to find some things to comfort and cheer the 
patriot and the^ Christian. The points to which I have referred, 
furnish to me the great relief of thought as I ponder upon this 
present scene of blood. But for them- 1 should look upon the 
scene with unmingled detestation and horror. War is indeed a 
most dreadful work. There is a awful wrong somewhere. In 
most cases both of the belligerents are guilty before God. In 
this case, however, I have no hesitation in saying, that the 
wrong, thes m, the guilt, and the unparalleled criminality, belong 
wholly to the rebels. They began the war without provocation, 
T.ithout excuse, and for a purpose as wicked as any that ever 
actuated the human heart. They have imposed upon the 
nation the absolute necessity of fighting, as the only means of 
escaping its own death. In these circumstances, I say frankly 
that my voice is for war, persistent, energetic, unrelenting, until 
this rebellion is entirely subdued. A* between war and national 
death, I clioose the former, deeming it on the score of conse- 
quences the least of two evils, and in its moral relations, an 
obvious duty. Consoled and comforted by the considerations 
which have been adduced in tliis sermon, I exhort you to 
stand firmly in your places, to entertain no idea of defeat, to 
accept of no inglorious compromise, and steadily, with an un- 
flinching heroism, pursue the struggle, till victory and peace 
shall gladden the land, and bless the world. May a gracious 
Providence be propitious, while a loyal people leaning upon his 
arm, and invoking his favor, perform the duties which belong to 
• the crisis and the hour! May the God of justice and order, 
purity and peace, re-establish harmony in our borders, by his 
wonderful providence causing the- wrath of man to praise him ! 
May the principles of liberty, based on the inalienable Bights 
of man, and deeply rooted in the soil of the public conscience, 
become the blessing and the comfort of all the people ! 



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